The best tech gear to bring along on your next camping trip

Camping and tech usually don’t belong together…unless you’re not really a hardcore camper and just love to escape the city from time to time. I’ve done backpacking trips where there was no access to showers, toilets, and all of the amenities we take for granted like WiFi and power outlets. Sure those excursions were memorable, but these days I prefer to load up my truck with my gear. With my tough camping days in the past, I now look to make camping out of a car about as comfortable as possible. I love listening to music while roasting marshmallows by the fire, with LED lights that I can recharge instead of my bulky and hot camping lantern. I also like browsing the web on my phone which means having portable power is a must.

Being outdoors doesn’t necessarily mean you have to completely disconnect from the world. It’s just another way to enjoy your personal time and the summer weather. If you prefer the kind of camping that I described above, then check out the awesome gear below to make your next trip even more relaxing.

With an abundance of portable power, there’s very little reason to bring along big, complicated and dirty gas lanterns. One of my personal favorite lighting systems is from Luminoodle. The Luminoodle is an LED lightstrip that can be connected to any power source with a USB A port. That means if you own a portable power bank or have a car charger, you’re in luck. The Luminoodle can be hung or it can simply be enjoyed on its own in the white bag it comes in. The Luminoodle comes in 5′ and 10′ lengths and is a great option for camping as well as having around as emergency backup lighting.

The RAVPower 22000 mAh portable power bank is the one you’ll need on a weekend long camping trip. It can recharge an iPhone 7 almost eight times – or it can charge a wide variety of gadgets like tablets, wireless speakers and more. At $39.99 it makes this a great addition to staying connected while enjoying the outdoors.

Power is unlimited when you have the sun providing it for free. All you need is a solar charger like the one from Anker to charge all of your USb powered devices. Summer is when the sun is closest to the Earth which makes solar panels even more effective than in the colder months. Simply connect any USB powered device into the back pocket of the Anker Solar Charger and recharge while you’re out on a hike.

One of the coolest activities to do while camping is searching out wildlife at night. While almost all campers are telling scary stories or roasting marshmallows at night, a whole world of activity wakes up at night. Lots of animals avoid over extending themselves in the daytime and hunt and feed at night. You can catch all of the action with the Solomark Night Vision monocular.

One of the hardest things to do while camping is to sleep. Noise, comfort and temperature are all difficult to control when sleeping outside. At around 5-6am, the sun starts to rise and turns your tent into a solar oven. If you’re camping in a spot without a tree, you’re going to need a fan to keep you cool in the early hours of the morning. This fan from Image can run at full speed for five hours or 15 hours on low speed on one D battery. It also doubles as a lantern for your tent at night.

Doing anything in the dark is difficult. Holding a flashlight to compensate for the dark is easy to do when walking. However any activity that requires a set of hands like brushing your teeth, washing dishes or looking through luggage is extremely difficult with just one hand. Head lamps are a great solution to this madness and can make your camping trip a lot more comfortable. The GRDE headlamp is not only priced affordably at $21, but it is also rechargeable. You can use your RAVPower portable power bank to recharge this head lamp instead of lugging extra batteries around.

Lack of showers are one major reason why quite a few of my female friends don’t want to go camping. I don’t disagree with them at all. When I was a Boy Scout, I didn’t necessarily mind going without showers but that’s mainly because I didn’t have a choice. Now that I’m older, I love my showers as much as I love my coffee. If you’re going camping at a site without showers, you can bring your own with the anglink portable camping shower. $34.99 is a reasonable price to pay to get rid of sweat, dirt and smoke.

Water, dust and shock resistance make the Fugoo Tough XL one of the best portable speakers for camping. Eight powerful drivers and 35 hours of playback make it the best portable speaker for camping. The Fugoo Tough XL is my speaker of choice when I go camping because it gets loud enough to entertain the entire group while never needing a recharge even for three day trips. After the trip is over I simply rinse it off in the kitchen sink where it shines like new.

Don’t forget about the food. Campfire cooking is one of the best activities of camping so check out these 30 recipes from delish.com.